FIG. 1 shows a typical telecommunication system. The central office (CO) (12) provides telecommunication services to subscribers (14) and (16). Each CO in the network (10) provides service to subscribers in a small geographic region. Thus, CO (12) provides services to its local subscribers (14) and (16) and CO (13) provides services to its local subscribers (15) and (17). Each subscriber in the entire network (worldwide) is given a unique identification number, e.g., a telephone number, IP address, etc. The fundamental operation of any CO is to physically connect subscribers to the network (10). This is accomplished via a hardware device known as a switch. Generally speaking, a switch is a network device that directs a signal through a network. Various network platforms and transport architectures are known in the art. Examples include basic circuit switched telephony, voice over “X” (wherein X may be DSL (digital subscriber line), FTTH (fiber-to-the-home), HFC (hybrid fiber coaxial line), IP (internet protocol), frame relay, asynchronous transfer mode, etc.), and wireless switching.
Referring to FIG. 2, a typical CO contains, among other things, a switch (20), a billing module (22), an operation system support module (24), and a customer service module (26). The switch (20) is a hardware component that connects a subscriber to the network or another subscriber. A billing module (22) is used to bill the subscriber for basic service rates, optional features, and usage. Most telephone billing systems contain a rater, which evaluates the applicable billing rates for usage of different carriers at different times of the day in order to choose the most cost effective route, or at least properly bill a subscriber. The operation system support module (24) is often used to keep track of inventory, assets, circuit ID, network designation, and orders. The customer service module (26) is usually used by a customer service representative to maintain subscriber information, change optional services, long distance carriers, reconcile billing errors, etc.
Each of the above systems are typically provided by separate vendors and rely on proprietary internal architectures. Because of this, upon receiving a request for new service or change in service from a subscriber, the changes need to be entered separately into the customer account for the subscriber in the customer service module (26), the subscriber options in the operation system support module (24), and customer profile in the billing module (22), and finally, the switch (20) must be programmed to allow the subscriber to access the new service(s).
In recent years, telecommunication service providers have added many enhanced telephone services such as Caller ID, 3-Way Calling, Call Forwarding, Call Waiting, Last Number Redial, Call Rejection, etc. Telephone service providers also offer other special features for telephone subscribers such as least cost routing, specialized billing, and blocks of telephone numbers. Together with the enhancement of services offered by telecommunication companies and at least in part due to the enhancement of services, switches have been designed to incorporate more robust control software. Likewise, with the ever-growing popularity of the Internet, telecommunication service providers have enhanced and increased availability of data services, e.g., dial-up and full-time connections to the Internet from the home or office.